Colin Dullaghan's photos with the keyword: Ilford

As a gift to my sister, I promised to photograph her son. Of the ten shots on the roll from that day, this was my favorite. A lot of credit, though, should really go to Grayson's grandma, who elicited this smile as she crouched just to my left. Baby photography is hard! Technical notes: Wanting to use natural light, I loaded a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 in the Mamiya RB67. For a narrow depth of field and flattering effect, I used a 180mm lens. Even with the fast film, I had trouble shooting above 1/30th of a second in the window light. (Another surprise was a side effect of the low-light setting: His pupils were almost completely dilated! I'm not sure why I didn't anticipate that. In a couple of the pictures, the whites of his eyes weren't visible at all, leading my wife to observe, "Um, he kind of looks like a puppet.") The biggest thing I learned from this, though, was that Ilford 3200 should really be shot at ISO 800, or so, unless you're using a special developer. I used my usual 1+100 Rodinal, and got thin negatives with tons of grain. Ah well, I kind of like the effect -- or, at least, I've convinced myself that I do. At any rate, unless I get that special developer, I now know of no way to shoot portraits in room light with an RB67. Which is kind of disappointing. The camera's so versatile, I've always told myself that there's nothing it can't do besides fit in your pocket!

Over the levee behind our house, the White River's level varies between where you see it here and about 10 or 15 feet up. It must've been during one of those high periods of heavy rain or spring melt that this gorgeous tree remnant washed into place between two neighboring live trees.

A crop from a much larger original shot, largely wrecked because I couldn't get the developer into the Combi-Plan tank fast enough. I still liked this part, though.

I was told that the White River, as it was renamed by, um, White people, got its name from the Delaware Indians who called it "Wahpihani," meaning "Great White River," because of the visible limestone bed beneath much of it. But now, as I try to verify this to write this caption, I see that Michael McCafferty, in "Native American Place Names of Indiana," says this is hooey. Well. It's still lovely.

The way pets seek out sunbeams, it just begs for a picture.

This *corn crib,* as its owner explained to me, sits off SR13 in Madison County, Indiana, just south of the town of Elwood. I think it is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

I could've composed this better, and I definitely lost detail in the highlights on the water, but hey. It was really cold. What I thought was interesting here was that this is just HP5 processed in Rodinal, yet it kind of looks "colorized." The shadows seem to have a bluish cast and the highlights yellow, which wasn't far off from how it actually looked out there the other day.

The composition isn't precisely what I'd wanted, since I wasn't anticipating anyone walking into the shot. But I'm awfully glad they did.